I bought a quart of glow fuel

[KC0FTC]

Cool, I run 30% heli in my helicopter and my Saito .91 and 20% in my .46 AX. Love the smell of nitro, mmm.

[AG3Y]

I will never forget the look on my Boy's buddy's face when I helped him fly a home-made control line model with a .049 "Black Widow" engine mounted on it. That little sucker was so much more powerful than a standard .049 Cox engine that you could hardly believe it! I started it, set it on the circle, and waited for him to give "the nod" to release the plane. He did so, and that smug "I can fly ANYTHING" look was replaced by one of stark terror! That plane was halfway around the circle before you could even think about it, and his maiden flight was basically one of just hanging on as the plane dashed madly around the circle! He never flew it again, and we still have it sitting up in the attic to this day ! It sure was a fun plane!

[W1GUH]

Surprised the plane survived. Usually too fast = too dizzy to avoid augering it into the ground. So the guy gets kudos for what he did!

[KD0CAC]

I used to play with all the good chemicals back then .
Then a few yrs. ago I got into Bio-diesel , and it took a while before I remembered what the smell was , many that talk about it [ but do not use it ] say the exhaust smells like deep fryer oil .
In the process of making Bio-diesel , methanol alcohol & lye are used to remove the triglycerides , so Bio-diesel smelsl like the old model airplane fuel .
If I gave up my Ham hobby , I would think about putting the money in helicopters , but I think I would jump to the [ not so new ] jet turbines , boy toys can get exspensive !

[K9ZMD]

I remember the smell of the fuel and the finger-whacks. No nostalgia though. The only two times I ever got one of those li'l engines started, I crashed the planes (yes, two of them) into smithereens within a couple dizzy spins in a circle. Bent the shafts, too. One of those planes was my brother's; that's something we can't civilly discuss even 55 years later.

Had a lot better luck with the boy scout pine derby car. After winning the trophy for distance, I sliced a flat spot atop the back end & mounted a jetex engine. Man did that thing zing around on a 6' tether! I don't remember the smell, but Mom said it sure stunk up the garage. And the leftover jetex fuse was sure useful for little projects that would probably attract Homeland Security attention these days.

[AG3Y]

There is a tremendous difference between a 1/2A plane made with balsa and hardwood, and one made of plastic. The balsa models are usually designed with oversized wings and with light weight in mind, while the plastic ones were basically scale models with no real attention paid to how well they might actually fly !

There is still a dedicated group of 1/2A fliers around the world, and with the miniaturization of batteries, RC receivers and servos and outrunner electric motors taking the place of the old Cox engines ( like it or not ) many tiny airplanes are being successfully flown !